This is an initiative run by Edge Hill University, which has developed interventions for children who need help with literacy and numeracy. A network of Providers around the UK deliver courses to train teachers and teaching assistants in the use of the interventions. The trainers also provide support for the teachers who work with the children.
We were initially asked to provide a data collection system for the interventions. But the success of our system had led it to grow to manage all the activities within the scheme. Although on one level this is a CRM system – with details of all the organisations (Providers, Local Authorities and Schools) and the contacts (Managers, Trainers, Teachers) – it is also much more.
Trainers can add new schools to the system, or schools can request a trainer through the system. One or more teachers from the school will take a course for one of the interventions available; their registration on that course automatically gives them access to secure online materials.
When the teachers start work with the children they record the details of each child’s progress on the system. Trainers monitor this and support where required. The central team can request trainers to review their records on an individual basis or in bulk and trainers then have to flag their data as up to date – indicating whether the teacher is “on track” and adding notes as required.
Child data is downloaded for analysis centrally to feed into annual reviews of the effectiveness of the interventions and reports are produced for each school which can be downloaded as pdfs.
The Edgehill projects involves 5,583 schools and operates on a national basis. Over 14,000 course registrations are held in the system and over 28,000 questionnaires are completed online each year. As such it is a comparable or larger system than the current proposal.
Our bespoke solution for Edge Hill University demonstrates Data Architects capability to produce systems which grow with our clients’ needs, sometimes well beyond the original specification.